Dowel Christmas Tree

My spouse’s mom saw a picture of a “dowel tree” on the web, and asked if I could make one. This one is four feet tall, with a 1-1/8” main trunk, 1/2” branches, and 1/4” twigs. You go thru a lot of dowels—I think there are about 50-60 feet of twigs, maybe 24 feet of branches.

After a test run, I chose dowels of relatively soft wood, which makes them easier to insert and remove. The branches are all removable for storage, but the twigs are glued in place into each branch. The branches and twigs are angled at 15 degrees upward or outward.

Since you have to drill a lot of holes, I built a jig for the drill press. The photos shows a test dowel, with two holes already in it. The jig has three parts. The first is a board that two blocks ride on. There is a stationary V-block that aligns the dowel under the bit, and allows easy depth settings. The second block is a square sliding block—it has a hole to hold the dowel, and nails to align the block with the edge of the board. Stick the dowel into the slider, and slide it into position. To drill holes on opposite sides of the dowel, you just flip the square slider block, which carries the dowel with it. Tip the drill press table to set the angle of the holes.

A fun project, and a lot quicker than I thought it might be! Happy holidays to all!